When it comes to engineering single-layer atomic structures, "minding the gap" will help researchers create artificial electronic materials one atomic layer at a time, according to a team of materials scientists.

Penn State faculty, staff and student competitors from the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Huck Institutes and the Materials Research Institute vie for Olympic gold July 23 on the lawn of the Millennium Science Complex on the University Park campus.

Additive manufacturing, sometimes known as 3D printing, is exactly what it sounds like. Working from a computer-generated model, a "printer" puts down layer after layer of material, adding layers until the design is realized in a finished part.
Admittedly, there's a lot of hype attached to this new technology. But there's plenty of real-world promise, too. Penn State's Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition, known as CIMP-3D, aims to be a world-class resource for that resurgence.

Carlo Pantano, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has served as director of Penn State's Materials Research Institute since 1998. This month, Pantano will step down as director to return full-time to research and teaching. In a recent interview with Matt Swayne of Research Communications, he expressed his excitement about the future of materials science, and the cross-pollination happening at Penn State's Millennium Science Complex.

Michael Lanagan, professor of engineering science and mechanics and associate director of the Center for Dielectric Studies in the Materials Research Institute, has been selected to participate in the U.S. Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.

A new Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, supported by the National Science Foundation and co-located at Penn State and North Carolina State University, will build on and expand the research capabilities of Penn State's long-running Center for Dielectrics Studies.

The Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute are now accepting submissions for the sixth annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC6), a scientific visual and artistic competition created to celebrate the quality of research in materials at Penn State.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded grants totaling $3 million for two nanoparticle research projects in which Penn State bioengineer Jian Yang is co-principal investigator. Drawing upon biology and materials science, the researchers will develop new polymers designed to deliver targeted cancer drugs and repair damaged arteries.

For decades, Penn State has led the nation in creating the organizational, physical and philosophical space for researchers across all backgrounds and disciplines to collaborate and create. The Millennium Science Complex, which opened in 2011, is one of the University's most recent, and now one of the most visible, examples of its commitment to interdisciplinary research.

Using a combination of the new tools of metamaterials and transformation optics, engineers at Penn State have developed designs for miniaturized optical devices that can be used in chip-based optical integrated circuits, the equivalent of the integrated electronic circuits that make possible computers and cellphones. In a paper in a new online journal, Light: Science and Applications, published by Nature Publishing Group, Douglas Werner, professor of electrical engineering, and his postdoctoral researcher Qi Wu and doctoral student Jeremiah Turpin present a unified theory for designing practical devices on a single platform using the new field of transformation optics.

In a cover article in The Journal of Applied Physics, a team of Penn State researchers has designed and computationally tested a type of manmade metamaterial capable for the first time of manipulating a variety of acoustic waves with one simple device.

Transistors are the building blocks of the electronic devices that power the digital world, and much of the growth in computing power over the past 40 years has been made possible by increases in the number of transistors that can be packed onto silicon chips. But that growth, if left to current technology, may soon be coming to an end.

Researchers at Penn State and the University of Notre Dame have announced breakthroughs in the development of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs), a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level. Their advances show that these transistors are on track to solve problems with current technology, namely power leakage and the generation of excessive heat, while delivering much greater energy efficiency.

The Materials Research Institute is offering guided public tours of the North Wing of the new Millennium Science Complex on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. Registrants are asked to meet in the lobby of the Materials Research Institute wing where the tour will commence. Tour participation is limited to 40 seats per tour date. To register, visit: http://doodle.com/p7wbf58hd4a43is3 online.